Abstract
As of end of 2014, 23 countries had signed the Implementing Agreement, with invitations extended to several others. This membership, from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania, provides a broad international base of experience and knowledge.
National governments appoint a Contracting Party to represent the country on the Executive Committee and there is a diversified representation of interests: governmental departments, utilities, universities and research organizations, energy agencies and industry associations. By information sharing and collaborative activities, participants gain an international perspective on ocean energy issues, opportunities and present challenges.
The OES held two ExCo Meetings in 2014: The 26th and 27th meetings were convened in Paris, France (14 – 15 May 2014), and Halifax, Canada (10 – 11 November 2014). OES began operating in 2001 and has released an annual report every year since then.
Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter addressing the role, values and benefits of OES. Chapter 2 provides information about present membership, gives a status overview of the OES programme of activities and interactions with the IEA during the year. Chapter 3 addresses dissemination activities while key accomplishments during 2014 are presented in Chapter 4.
As in previous years Chapter 5 presents a contribution by acknowledged project developers. Three leading project developers in ocean energy (DP Energy, Emera and ESB) were invited to respond to the following questions:
- The ocean energy sector needs the first pre-commercial projects in the water, and your organization has a leading role worldwide. Could you give some information of your short to medium term plans given the current conditions?
- Project development involves a wide variety of risks, including technical, regulatory and financial. Could you describe the most critical that you have encountered/ encounter and how could they be overcome?
- If support measures are put in place in order to overcome those barriers, can you identify the responsible stakeholders for delivering solutions, such as governments, supply chain, research sector, etc., and what would be the expected improvement in terms of your project pipeline and cost reduction achievable?
- How do you see that international collaboration could accelerate ocean energy growth and what, specifically, is the role that you would like OES to play in supporting the development of ocean energy?
Under Chapter 6 each OES member country presents its national programme activities over the last year. The final Chapter 7 is a compilation of statistical information provided by all country representatives. Background information is presented in the appendixes.